Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-10-05
A BROADER POLICY FOB THE RIVER.

several congressman ana senator spoke, |
and to which another Senator sent a help |
full letter The main purpose of the meet
ing appears to have been to press the claim
of Oakland harbor upon the Government
attention. There was but one opinion as
to the need of appropriations for the COM
pletion of the harbor, and the probability
is that the work of the meeting will have
considerable effect upon Congress.
If the appropriations for Oakland har-
Dor have been inadequate and at no time
commensurate with its commercial impor-
tance. how much more parsimonious is
the Government towards the chief naviga-
BILE river of the State. Where thousands
of dollars have been expended in Oak
land harbor Improvements, only hun
dreds have been devoted to the improve
ment of the navigation of the Sacramento
river. Aside from all questions of by
draulic mining and its stoppage the Fed
eral Government has been niggard in its
appropriations for the river. If there
never had been washed into the channels
of the stream pound of hydraulic mining
slum and sand, still the pitiful sums voted
for its care would have been inadequate.
In fact, compared to the attention other
main navigable streams of the country
receive, the Sacramento river has not been
given one-tenth its Importance demands.
In truth, the Sacramento river has been
wofully neglected by the Government
which is bound by every consideration to
protect and preserve its integrity. AS
consequence Congress is piling up heavy
bill Of cost against the day when the
stream must be thoroughly improved, for
true economy dictates that it have atten-
tion now.
The construction of harbor at Oakland
is of Importance, and it is not questioned
or opposed in the interior; but put along
side the claim of the river it is not case
of emergency, and in its immediate i'm
portance is not to be compared 10 the ne
cessity for restoring the one-time nayiga-
bility of the Sacramento and redeeming it
from the narrow uses to which it has de-
clined. The people have not been negli-
gent in complying with the condition at
tached by the Government that hydraulic
mining contributing injury to the river
shall cease. They have invoked the powers
Of the Courts so efectually that it is no
longer contended that their judgment that
the system is a public nuisance when it
sends deposits to the rivers, may be at
tackled or appealed from with wisdom.
Hydraulic contribution to river destruc-
ton is outlawed, and never will be permit
ted to again be the menace it once was 1t
has so largely ceased that with some little
Government activity it can now be wholly
stopped. 1t would seem then, since the
Government itself has set its seal of con-
demnation upon the nuisance, and has it
self authorized interference to forever pre-
vent the filling of the stream by artificial
means, that the time has come for a
broader policy on the part of Congress and
the Federal departments toward the Sacra-
mento river.
The people of this section might very
well follow the example of Oakland, and
prior to the assembling of Congress take
counsel with our Representatives and Sem
ators as 10 what should be done in the
premises. If the Sacramento river flowed
through one of the thickly populated
States of the great East, its condition
would be the subject for the most pro-
nounced public activity, and Congress
would not fail to give it the attention its
Importance justified. We have become.
perhaps, accustomed to the decadence of
the stream, and are losing sight of what it
once was and what it may again be; we
are forgetting what powerful aid to COM
merce it was and is and how much greater
factor it can be in the States develop
ment, if it has early reasonable care and
protection.
1t has now been five years and more
since the condition was attached that the
Improvement of the river must be DEPEND
ent upon the stoppage of hydraulic mining.
1t may be that ten years hence improve
ment of the river will be but very little
more advanced. A very few defiant yio-
iators of the law against depositing
hydraulic mining debris in the stream can
keep us in litigation for years, and conse-
quently prevent river improvement under
the present policy. The people have been
diligent, at heavy cost, in meeting the
spirit of the condition and complying with
1t, and it would seem that the Government
should now adopt less narrow policy.
That, indeed, it should render more effec-
tive aid than it has, to bring about that
state of affairs in which hydraulic mining
that endangers the river will be unknown.
That 1t ought to do more than it has, or is
doing, to bring about conditions under
which there will be no room for excuses
for declining to improve the stream by be-
ginning the work of rectifying its channels,
abollshing It's bars, Strengthening its banks.
augmenting its securing capacity, and
generally conserving its navigability-a
work that of necessity will extend over
many years.
If there is need for broader policy for
Oakland harbor, there is greater need for
1t for the Sacramento Diver; if more gen.
erous appropriations are due for Oakland's
harbor channel, they are imperative for the
Sacramento river. The Government. with
an overhowing treasury, ought not longer
to stand aside and render 50 little aid to
the consummation of the end that will
mark the beginning of improvement of
the chief free highway of the State.
We are far from the great centers of pop
ulatlon; there the Sacramento river and
its condition and Importance are matters
OF small personal concern, and hence. I'M
less we push our claims they will not be
advanced. The great trouble has been that
every honest effort to secure due attention
OF the Goversm ent for the rivers OF Ca,;